My first involvement with ministry in Portugal was in summer 2018. I was still a student at Belfast Bible College and I had chosen to go to Portugal for a month-long placement. I went to serve with Vila Real Baptist church through Awake ministries, who have been serving in Portugal for more than a decade.

This first trip sparked my interest in missions in Portugal, particularly seeing how much of a need there was for evangelism, church-planting and local church ministry. This initial exposure got me thinking and praying about serving the Lord there, until in July 2021 I moved to Portugal to serve as a full-time missionary in Vila Real and the wider 'behind the mountains region' with ECM.

The Lord used my first short-term trips in a very impactful way to show me not just the need in Portugal, but even more importantly how I could go and meet that need through immersing myself in the Portuguese culture and language, and by serving the local churches I had connected with.

A change that has just happened in September is a move to the city of Coimbra to serve there. I am involved with local church ministry and student ministry with the local GBU (Grupo Biblico Universitario). I have made this move at the end of three years in Vila Real and other cities like Chaves and Bragança in the same northern area of Portugal, where I have been serving local churches and church plants. It has been a great privilege to serve with these churches for these last years, and I am deeply thankful to all who have been supporting me, both in Northern Ireland and in Portugal, as I have completed this first definable period as a missionary in Portugal.

I trust, and would ask you to join me in praying, that the Lord will establish my steps and lead me in accordance with His will as I settle in Coimbra. I trust in the Lord’s sovereign plan for how long, and in what specific ways, He wants me to continue to serve him in Portugal. My aim is always to be faithful in my life and in my doctrine, just as Paul exhorted Timothy (1 Tim 4:16). I trust that if I am faithful in these ways, the Lord will keep me where he wants me to be and use me there. I think the most surprising thing as these three years comes to and end is that it has come around so quickly. It is amazing how quickly three years can pass, especially when you are busy in the Lord’s work. I feel privileged that I can use these years of my twenties to serve the Lord in unevangelised Europe, I can’t think of a better way to use the energy of my youth.

The last three years have brought challenges, but I have always found them to be outweighed by the joy of serving the Lord and the knowledge that the investment I am making is an eternal one, whilst the temporal frustrations, challenges and uncertainties will come and go. Please pray that for however longer the Lord keeps me in Portugal, that I will remain faithful and see more fruit borne for His kingdom.

- Shane McGloin, ECM worker in Portugal